Capture invoice data
Collect invoices from the agreed channels and extract header and line information.
Accounts Payable Automation
Accounts Payable Invoice Automation
Move vendor invoices from receipt to validated ERP entry through a defined processing workflow. Xalta connects document extraction, vendor rules, purchase-order and receipt checks, approval routing and posting confirmation. Keep finance in control of exceptions and accounting decisions while reducing repeated entry across inboxes, portals and financial systems.
Match and validate
Apply vendor rules, duplicate checks and the configured PO or receipt matching.
Route approvals
Send discrepancies and approval requests to the responsible person with source context.
Post and reconcile
Confirm the ERP result and retain the transaction history for follow-up.
Operational challenges
Challenges
Invoice processing depends on more than reading a PDF. AP teams must interpret vendor formats, validate accounting and purchasing references, obtain approvals and confirm the entry in the financial system. When those steps are disconnected, volume increases create more queues and checking work.
Invoice formats vary
Vendors submit different layouts and line structures through email, shared folders or portals. Staff re-key the same information and correct extraction errors before downstream validation can begin.
Operational impact: repeated capture work and inconsistent input quality.
Validation crosses systems
Vendor status, account codes, purchase orders, receipts and tax or credit rules may be held in separate applications or spreadsheets. Teams switch between them to decide whether an invoice can proceed.
Operational impact: high handling effort and dependence on experienced operators.
Approvals lose the context
A missing reference, price difference or non-PO invoice can require a different owner. Without the original invoice and reason for escalation, approvers spend time reconstructing the issue before making a decision.
Operational impact: aging exceptions and slower approval cycles.
Posting does not close the loop
An approved invoice can still fail during ERP entry or return an ambiguous save result. Separate trackers make it difficult to establish whether the transaction posted, which document it belongs to and whether a retry would duplicate the entry.
Operational impact: reconciliation work and uncertain transaction status.
Accounts Payable Automation
How It Works
Use one source-linked invoice record through capture, validation, approval and posting. The workflow preserves the accounting rules and human decisions needed to explain why an invoice progressed or stopped.
Receive & extract
Collect invoices from the agreed email, EDI, shared-folder or portal channels. Classify the document, extract the required header and line information and check the source reference and duplicate indicators. Route low-confidence or missing fields for review.
Validate & match
Apply vendor-specific rules, mandatory-field checks, accounting mappings and the agreed purchase-order or receipt checks. Configure two-way or three-way matching where the source references and business process support it, isolating discrepancies for review.
Approve & resolve
Route invoices according to the client’s approval policy, ownership and exception rules. Give reviewers the source document, relevant reference records and reason for escalation. Record the decision and revalidate corrected information before posting.
Post & reconcile
Create the agreed ERP or GL entry, capture its result and update the invoice status. Reconcile rejected or uncertain outcomes before retrying. Vendor-statement matching and wider payment steps can be added when included in scope.
Solution capabilities
Solutions
The solution combines document intelligence, configurable business rules and cross-system orchestration. Reuse the core capture and control patterns, then configure vendor handling, matching and approvals around the finance operation.
Document Automation or selected document AI
Invoice capture and extraction
Ingest the supported invoice documents or structured messages and extract required fields and line items. Configure vendor templates or schemas, source references and confidence review so unresolved input is corrected before downstream decisions.
Operational example
Review a low-confidence amount against the original invoice with its vendor context.
Configurable validation and accounting logic
Vendor-specific rule execution
Apply approved vendor, accounting, tax and credit rules to the extracted record. Keep rule ownership and change control visible. In the documented oil-and-gas implementation, vendor rules were maintained in an external Excel workbook rather than embedded throughout the automation.
Operational example
Derive account and sub-account values from the approved vendor rule configuration.
Configured PO and receipt matching
Two-way and three-way matching
Compare invoice data with the available PO and, for the configured three-way process, receipt records. Define quantity, price and tolerance checks, partial cases and non-PO handling with the business owners. Confirm the source interfaces and matching scope during design.
Operational example
Route a quantity or price mismatch with the invoice, purchase order and receipt context.
Finance policies and contextual review
Approval and exception routing
Apply the required approval path and assign discrepancies to the correct team. Preserve the document, failed rule and decision history. Recheck corrected data before release so an approval does not obscure an unresolved validation issue.
Operational example
Send a non-PO invoice to the designated approver while a PO discrepancy follows its own review path.
Target-specific ERP connection
ERP posting and reconciliation
Map approved invoice data to the target accounting entry, capture the result and retain the transaction reference. Reconcile failed saves and uncertain outcomes before resubmission. Assess vendor-statement reconciliation or payment scheduling as connected scope.
Operational example
Assign an invoice that did not save in the ERP and preserve its processing state.
Transaction history and operational measures
Operating controls and reporting
Track the invoice, exception owner, approval and posting result through the workflow. Evaluate new vendor layouts and rules before release, and report cycle time, touchless eligibility and effort against a defined baseline.
Operational example
Identify whether aging work is waiting for source correction, approval or ERP recovery.
Platforms, tech stack and architecture
Integrations & Architecture
The detailed oil-and-gas case documents Automation Anywhere A360, Document Automation, DocVue, OGSQL/OGSYS and external Excel-based vendor rules. Other supplied material describes Azure AI Document Intelligence and Power Automate with AI Builder. ERP targets such as SAP, Oracle, NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics and Infor are assessed for the specific interfaces and business rules required.
Platforms and technical architecture
The layers below identify the technology, its role and the configuration decisions for the agreed deployment.
| Workstream | Platform / technology | Architectural role | Client configuration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Orchestration | Automation Anywhere A360 in the documented oil-and-gas workflow; Power Automate or other selected automation platform where appropriate. | Coordinate intake, validation, application tasks, approvals and recovery. | Runtime, work queues, credentials, scheduling and client operating model. |
| Document intelligence | Automation Anywhere Document Automation in the detailed case; Azure AI Document Intelligence or AI Builder in other supplied material. | Extract invoice fields and line details with review for unresolved input. | Vendor formats, confidence thresholds, training samples and approved service. |
| Rules and validation | External Excel vendor-rule workbook in the documented case; approved business-rule configuration. | Apply vendor, account-code, tax, credit and workflow decisions. | Rule owners, tolerances, change approval and PO or receipt availability. |
| Document and approval systems | DocVue in the detailed case; Outlook and SharePoint in a separate Power Automate implementation. | Retain documents, route approvals and preserve source references. | Client repositories, approval permissions, audit and retention requirements. |
| ERP and GL | OGSQL/OGSYS in the documented case. SAP, Oracle, NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics and Infor are integration targets to assess. | Create approved entries and capture authoritative posting responses. | Available APIs or UI paths, licensing, field mappings and recovery behaviour. |
| Monitoring and analytics | Transaction-level audit and reporting; Power BI appears in the separate attorney-invoice case. | Make work status, exception ownership and posting outcomes visible. | Reporting destination, acceptance measures and support scope. |
Invoice and rule samples
Provide representative vendor invoices, source channels, accounting rules and known exception cases.
Purchasing and ERP references
Confirm vendor, PO and receipt access, target entry mappings and the permitted posting approach.
Approval and acceptance
Agree approval authority, tolerances, touchless eligibility, reconciliation rules and support ownership.
Applied workflows and success measures
Use Cases
The measures below are proposed programme targets or scope definitions. Establish the baseline, eligible workload and acceptance criteria during discovery. The client example provides separate documented results for its specific workflow.
Programme target
85%Touchless-processing target
Proposed target for the defined eligible invoice population after the agreed validation and approval rules; confirm the denominator in the pilot.
Programme target
70%Cycle-time reduction target
Proposed reduction against the agreed end-to-end baseline, including the treatment of approval waiting time and exceptions.
Configured capability
3-wayConfigured matching scope
Invoice, purchase-order and receipt matching is configured where the required records and interfaces are available.
Documented implementation · Accounts payable
Oil & gas accounts payable
Vendor invoice processing across DocVue and OGSQL/OGSYS.
Operating context
The documented client handled more than 800 vendors and over 1,500 invoices a month with varied layouts, manual validation and repeated navigation between accounting applications.
Implementation
Automation Anywhere A360 ingested invoice PDFs, used Document Automation for extraction and applied vendor rules maintained in Excel. The workflow updated DocVue, created GL entries in OGSQL/OGSYS and returned to the approval process, assigning unresolved cases to the appropriate employee.
Documented outcomes
- The case reports 70% reduction in human effort.
- The case reports 75% reduction in processing time.
- Rule-based validation and connected system updates reduced manual entry and supported additional vendor onboarding.
Delivery and operations
Implementation & Support
Start with a defined workstream and an agreed baseline. Configure the selected platform and integrations, validate representative and exception scenarios, then release in controlled stages with named operating owners.
Assess the AP workflow
Map invoice channels, vendor groups, rules, approval steps and ERP outcomes. Establish eligible volumes and cycle-time and effort baselines.
- Xalta delivers
- Process map, dependency assessment and measurable scope.
- Your team provides
- Invoice samples, finance owners and current handling information.
Acceptance checkpoint
The agreed evidence, ownership and readiness criteria for this stage are accepted.
Configure & connect
Build extraction profiles, vendor rules, matching checks, approval routing and the target posting connection.
- Xalta delivers
- Configured intake, validation and accounting workflow.
- Your team provides
- Approved access, rule owners, reference data and posting mappings.
Acceptance checkpoint
The agreed evidence, ownership and readiness criteria for this stage are accepted.
Validate & launch
Test normal, duplicate, partial, non-PO, approval and posting-failure scenarios. Reconcile results through controlled batches before widening volume.
- Xalta delivers
- Evaluation evidence, reconciliation and release plan.
- Your team provides
- Business acceptance, approval decisions and release authorisation.
Acceptance checkpoint
The agreed evidence, ownership and readiness criteria for this stage are accepted.
Support & extend
Monitor processing and review queues, assess vendor or ERP changes and evaluate enhancements before release.
- Xalta delivers
- Scoped monitoring, incident triage and configuration changes.
- Your team provides
- Operational ownership and approval of material rule or scope changes.
Acceptance checkpoint
The agreed evidence, ownership and readiness criteria for this stage are accepted.
Related work and solution references
Case Studies
Documented finance and document-processing work provides context for the solution’s extraction, integration and operating controls.
Oil & gas · Accounts payable
Vendor invoice processing
70% less manual effort
Reported for the documented client workflow
Automation Anywhere A360 and Document Automation connected invoice extraction, vendor-specific Excel rules, DocVue and OGSQL/OGSYS. Validation, approval and fallback handling remained part of the processing flow.
Read case study
Financial services · Document operations
UCC filing and attorney invoices
Connected to the ERP
Republic Finance implementation
Reusable extraction and form-generation components supported state-specific filing. The related attorney invoice workflow applied business and accounting rules, with non-conforming transactions sent for human review.
Read case study
Healthcare · Remittance operations
EOB payment posting
Scanned EOBs to EDI 835
Documented healthcare implementation
OCR, payer-data normalisation, adjustment mapping and transaction balancing supported remittance reconciliation and downstream payment-posting workflows, with unresolved records routed to review.
Read case studyPlanning your deployment
FAQs
Questions about platform choices, operating scope, integration and acceptance.
What is included from receipt to posting?
The scope can cover agreed intake channels, field and line extraction, vendor validation, accounting rules, approval routing, ERP entry and posting-result reconciliation. Two-way or three-way matching, vendor-statement reconciliation and downstream payment steps are defined against available data and the client process.
Which platforms are used in the documented implementation?
The detailed oil-and-gas case uses Automation Anywhere A360, Document Automation, DocVue, OGSQL/OGSYS and an external Excel vendor-rule workbook. Other supplied implementations use Power Automate, AI Builder, Outlook and SharePoint, while the wider portfolio includes Azure AI Document Intelligence. The chosen deployment stack is recorded in the implementation design.
Can it connect to SAP, Oracle, NetSuite or Infor?
These are integration targets to assess alongside Microsoft Dynamics and the client’s actual ERP landscape. Available APIs, UI paths, licensing, data models and approval controls determine the connection. The proposal identifies required mappings and any additional development rather than assuming an identical prebuilt connector for every ERP.
How do two-way and three-way matching work?
The configured two-way workflow compares the invoice with the purchase order. The three-way workflow also uses the relevant receipt record. Finance defines the matching fields, tolerances, partial cases and discrepancy handling, and the implementation validates that the required records can be accessed reliably.
Who maintains vendor and accounting rules?
Ownership is agreed with finance and the platform team. The documented oil-and-gas implementation maintains vendor-specific rules externally in Excel. Changes still require the agreed review and evaluation so a new mapping or tolerance is checked before it affects production processing.
Are the 85% and 70% figures proven for this deployment?
They are proposed touchless and cycle-time targets from the supplied brief and require a defined baseline and eligible population. Separately, the detailed oil-and-gas case reports 70% human-effort reduction and 75% processing-time reduction for that client workflow. The measures describe different populations and should be evaluated separately.
What happens to exceptions or failed ERP entries?
The workflow retains the invoice, source context, failed check and responsible owner. Review decisions and corrected values are recorded before revalidation. Posting failures or uncertain outcomes are reconciled against the ERP state before retrying, with the recovery rules defined during implementation.
Does this release payments or guarantee discounts?
Payment execution, payment scheduling and vendor-statement reconciliation are separate connected scopes when required. Finance retains its approved authority and controls. Faster processing can support discount eligibility, while actual savings depend on supplier terms, approval timing and the client’s payment decisions.
Discuss your requirements
Contact Us
Bring representative invoices, priority vendor groups, your ERP landscape and the approval or matching issues taking the most time. We will define the initial capture-to-posting scope, stack, rule ownership and acceptance measures.